Al Ngullie
Aurally-handicapped Nagas had thought musicians – folkers or rockers – were counter-culture terrorists. That is, until something called Bamboo Mission and a Bamboo Mission officer took to front-page news a week ago. One couldn’t do much to not to be sarcastic. And hurt. Frustration. And Hurt.
Ostensibly, valid counter-culture terrorists are in fact “educated,” highly-placed in society, respect-retentive and are affording of superfluous power to flush the toilet. And they thought counter-culture terrorists are actually the ones sporting long, scruffy, dandruff-happy hair, torn jeans and a skull-and-bones Ibanez. (For those in the bamboo forests –‘Ibanez’ is a Japanese guitar company and one of the 5 most played, superior guitar-makes in the world).
Also, it was highly fantastic to have even imagined bamboo would one night be a good medium to whip up a bad melody, you know, like the July 31 incident at Sovima. For instance, (Abiogenesis’ frontman) Moa’s Bamboo Bumhum is different – his bamboo instrument is for music and thankfully, not for thrashing the blues out of people like Higher Ground. The Bamboo Mission people, led by a Junior Engineer, were perhaps deaf to these more-advanced dynamics that the global world is traversing today. No wonder they (the mission people) reportedly acted like demented baboons in a bamboo grove.
Let’s do a refresh on the entire objectionable confrontation. According to media reports, and personal sources, Higher Ground, after their performance, had asked for the show-fee from the officer. The response is of two versions here: Reports said the officer refused in a tone which suggested him condescending the band members’ effort and so did not merit immediate payment. Another version said the officer had ‘appealed’ to pay only the next day. Either way, this agitated the band members. One of them reacted by banging on furniture. This led the officer to (reportedly) mobilize a group of Bamboo Mission workers/some youths of a particular community. Two members of Higher Ground the frontman Sashi – a prominent face in the local scene – and his wife and vocalist, Asen, bore the brunt of the assault.
While inference from media reports highlighted similar detail, the interesting aspect was that organizers, fans and some who were at the concert reiterated the same facts yet again, before the media reports went afloat. However, the matter of relevance is these: no matter the cause, it is not in any body’s right, in any way, in any form or nature, to assault another. Leave alone by an individual so highly-placed in responsibility. Whoever perpetrated the mistreatment deserves a legal, police action. In the second place, what had a group of people who most obviously are musically-deficient got to do with the matter that they should be instigated to be in? Thirdly, was the matter so serious that the officer lowered himself to sanctioning the action?
And yes, several individuals associated with the event’s organizing, informed me that the officer had even the nerve – or ego? – to declare, “Eee, ki hobo, gaana baja khan asi! Tai khan ki koribo!” (They are only musicians; what can they do).
What the perpetrators failed to understand, if at all capable of such, was that while the band members could be culpable for impulsiveness, local musicians are perennially under pressure – the pressure to attain a higher level of technicality; to register a decent scope of showmanship; to constantly keep in refinement aesthetic proficiency. And for general information, these few dimensions are not so much a pressure as it is at garnering the needful personal, I repeat, personal, resources to maintain the musical output. I was shocked when a musician-friend associated with the July 31 concert, informed that Higher Ground had performed about 30 songs! To Whom It May Concern, allow me to enlighten you that for 30 songs Higher Ground merited anywhere from 1.2 lakhs to 2 lakhs. This demonstrates the level of understanding of the value of musical output and yes, practical appreciation the people of the metros have. (I was informed the department was to pay them somewhere 15, 000). Even in mainland Indian cities, bar-bands are now recognized aesthetic professionals. In western countries, 8 songs are standard if the performance is album-driven. For tribute bands (in Asia, cover-bands) 10 songs are more than the standard output for performances.
Sadly, this is Nagaland. And interestingly, thanks to certain people who are committed to undermining deserving talents. With so much heat bearing down their very capacity that they are expected to deliver with proficiency, I say it was only natural for the band members to react the way they did in the first place. It was not right, perhaps, but was a natural reaction you would have resorted to had you been a local musician. But yes, only musicians who’d struggled through the dregs will understand.
I remember during the 2005 Hornbill Beat contest, five of us, after a performance, walked all the way to Kohima from Khisama heritage village – with five guitars, two mini-combos, and three multi-FX 8s – reached around 11:35. The show had wound up around 7pm! We had asked to be provided transportation to Kohima at least and were flatly denied. The, yes, we later discovered scores of bands with their gears, congregated at PR Hill Police Point –each with his responsible instrument! The department in concern had given them the snoot-up too! And trust me this is only an instance, from a virtually myriad highlight of apathy that local musicians are put through.
The youth music outreach of the state government is just another sneak-up for the DAN government to give the impression that it is at all youth-centric. The real musicians are crowding 3x3 “concert halls.” Or getting battered by certain government officers.
Another revolting encounter with the whole issue was the reaction of a senior Bamboo Mission officer I contacted. The Bamboo Mission officer (with a state conduit) said it was a “very small issue” and “would be settled” at a meeting. The only thing that kept me from telling him off, like he should have been told off, was my capacity as a media person. What he did not understand was the very fact that aside from insulting practical aesthetes, his department has also stooped to the level of perpetrating physical abuse – this amount itself to breach of personal, basic human rights. No more, no less.
An FIR with the Police was lodged. An apology was extended to the band members – after a lapse of several days. But the damage has been done. The whole episode stinks of how an unappreciated population could all the more be affronted.
Naga Idol Moanungsang must know when he expressed shock at the way Higher Ground was treated. He used the most apt word to describe the whole incident: “shameful.” “It is a shameful act…I feel regret that we ended up in a situation like this..,” said the Naga Idol, himself in a good know of how it means to be a struggling musician. In the likened vein Atsung Jamir, a friend and a proficient musician himself, found hard to put to expression the painful chapter. It only shows our attitude to how a struggling section is at all treated, Atsung confided.
He must know. For the music fraternity, there are no two opposing perspectives on the after-concert assault of the musicians. For the local music circuit (for those who are still yet to emerge from the bamboo forests, ‘Circuit’ in the music world means ‘situation’ or ‘current trend’ and not some electrical connector) the assault not only goes to highlight how local talents are taken for granted but also the extent of apathy that aesthetic performances can be shown.
My total solidarity with Nagaland’s music fraternity.
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